T E GE DETIC SE 
BE ENTHE ST 
T ECO MU ES 
Tomaž Kocuvan, Franci Bačar, M.Se. 
Swveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of 
Slovenia, Novo Mesto Dislrict Surveying and Mapping 
Authorily 
Received for publication: 16 July 1996 
Prepared for publication: 4 September 1996 
Abstract 
The paper discusses the transfer of competencies of the 
former communal geodetic administrative bodies to !he stale, 
and the possibility of the transfer of certain competencies in 
the fie!d from sta te bodies /o local self-managed 
communities and olher contraclors. 
Keywords: commune, competencies, geodetic records, 
geodetic sen1ice, legislation, stale 
UDC 061. 14.008(497.12):528 
061.3(497.12-2) Portorož "1996":528 
CE 
TEA D 
he course of attaining independence in the Republic of S!ovenia, which in 
several respects meant a break with the former constitutional orcler, did not take 
a revolutionary path; the adoption of the new Constitution took an evolutionary path, 
and the forming of the new legal system is stili in progrcss. Constitutional changes 
began with the decision of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic (SR) of Slovenia 
.of 16 December 1989, when it appointed a work group for the preparation of starting 
points for a new Constitution of thc SR of Slovenia. The starting points for the new 
Constitution, which were published in Delo on 16 December 1989 and servcd as 
guidelines for the appointed work group, announced a new constitutional orientation 
which would be characterized by democracy and a legal state in the broadest sense, 
pluralism, a market economy, etc. The first post-war democratic elections, which took 
place in April 1990 and in which in accordance with a proportional election system 
nine parties gained seats in the National Assembly, were an important step in the 
construction of the new legal order. 
he plebiscite of 23 December 1990 holds a spccial place in Slovenia's attaining of 
independence and forming a new constitutional ordcr. The majority of 
participants ( over 88%) voted for an independent Republic of Slovenia. Thc 
adoption of the Basic Constitutional Charter on the Sovereignty and Indepcndencc 
of the Republic of Slovenia and thc Constitutional Law for the Implementation of 
the Sovereignty and lndependence of the Republic of Slovenia wcre parts of the 
procedure for the fina! formation of the Slovenian state. The new Constitution of the 
Republic of S!ovenia was adopted at the Assembly of thc Republic of Slovenia on 23 
December 1991 by a two-thirds majority of all delegates. 
Geodetski vestnik 40 (1996) 3 
The continuity of Constitutional norms and the legal system is demonstrated by the fact that the new Constitution was adopted by the Assembly of the Republic 
of Slovenia, which had been elected according to the provisions of the old 
Constitution and Electoral Law. The new Constitution was adopted in the procedure 
for the revision of the Constitution and it retained certain regulations from the 
previous constitutional order. Thc prescrvation of the validity of federal regulations 
and thcir use as rcpublic regulations, and the rcsulting continuity of the legal ordcr, 
are prescribed with thc provision of thc first paragraph of Articlc 4 of thc 
Constitutional Law for thc Implcmentation of thc Basic Constitutional Charter on 
the Sovereignty and Independcnce of the Republic of Slovcnia: "Until the issuance of 
appropriate regulations by thc Rcpublic of Slovenia, the fcderal laws which wcrc in 
forcc in thc Republic of Slovcnia at thc tirne this law came into force shall be 
reasonably applied as republican laws in the Republic of Slovenia, if they are not in 
conflict with the legal order of thc Republic of Slovenia and unless otherwise 
determined in this law." 
state administration was organized for the performance of administrative tasks 
as part of the executive branch with the passing of thc Law on Administration. 
The transfer of administrative tasks from communal administrative bodics to statc 
administrative bodies was prescribcd with thc provisions of Article 101 of thc stated 
law, which prescribes that: "On l January 1995 the statc shall assume ali 
administrative tasks and compctencies from communcs in the fields for which 
individual ministries have been established, and all other administrative tasks of 
authoritative nature from the competencies of thc communes as detcrmincd by law. 
Administrative tasks in thc fields from the previous paragraph shall bc pcrformcd by 
administrative units, exccpt for the tasks of the geodctic service, tasks of 
administrative supervision and tasks in the ficld of defencc and security, which shall 
be performed directly by thc competent ministries." 
Articlc 99.a of the Law on Local Sclf-Managcment prescribes that: "The regulations 
of former communes with which thc mattcrs in state competence listed in Article 101 
of the Law on Administration are rcgulated shall be valid from 1 January 1995 
onwards as state regulations and shall bc implemented by state bodies and replaccd 
with thcir own regulations within thc boundaries of their compctence. 
Thc parts of regulations of formcr communcs from Articles 21 and 22 hereinabovc in 
which local matters are regulated shall bc valid from 1 January 1995 onwards as 
communal regulations and shall be implemented by communal bodics and replaced 
with thcir own regulations. 
The compctencies of bodics of former communes dctcrmincd by laws and other stale 
regulations in arranging and executing mattcrs in state competencc shall not bc 
passed to the bodies of ncw communes.11 
The assumption of administrative tasks from conrimunal administrative bodies, . which were bodies of exccutive authority and were organized according to the 
principle of decentralization of state (social) authority in thc communcs as 
social-political communities, is a logical consequence of Articlc 139 of thc 
Constitution of the Republic of Slovcnia, which prescribcs in its first paragraph that 
Geodetski vestnik 40 ( 1996) 3 
communes are local self-managed communitics, and in Article 140 that local matters 
which communes can regulate independently and which concern ooly the inhabitants 
of the commune fall under the competence of communes. The above-mentioned 
articles of the Constitution, the Law on Administration and the Law on Local 
Self-Management do not provide an answer to thc question of what are sta te 
competencies and what are local mattcrs which fall in the competence of communes 
as local self-managed communities. At the request of the Executive Council of the 
Krško commune and the National Council, the Constitutional Court passed Decision 
No. U-I-285/94-105, dated 30 March 1995, in the procedure for assessment of 
constitutionality of Article 101 of the Law on Administration, which states: "The first 
paragraph of Article 101 of the Law on Administration (Official Gazette of the RS, 
No. 67/94) and the third paragraph of Article 99a of the Law on Local 
Self-Management (Official Gazette of the RS, Nos. 72/93, 57/94 and 14/95) shall be 
annulled. This annulment shall come into force on 1 June 1995.'1 
In the explanation of its decision, the Constitutional Court emphasized that they had stated very clearly already in their Decision No. U-I-13/94, dated 20 January 
1994 (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 6/94) that upon the transition to the systcm of 
local self-managemcnt, thc National Assembly must delimit and detcnnine the 
competencies of the sta te and local communitics. According to the decision of the 
Constitutional Court, the assumption of competencies with the general provisions of 
Article 101 of the Law on Administration is in conflict with the principies of a legal 
state and the separation of powers, which require normative regulatioo of 
competencies in individual areas of administrative functions and tasks through one or 
more laws, since thc provisions about competencies rnean the authorization of 
certain bodies to pass decisions regarding individual administrative matters. 
n 26 October 1994, the National Assembly adopted the Law on the 
Organization and Work Area of Ministries with which it determined ministries, 
administrative bodies and adrninistrntive organizations in their composition, and their 
areas of work. With the Decree on thc Territorial Extent of Administrative Units in 
the Republic of Slovenia, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia determined 
the extent of administrative units for the territories of former communes and thc 
territory of the city of Ljubljana, and listed settlements within the territories of 
individual administrative units, thus determining thc local competence of individual 
administrative units. The material competence of administrative units in 
administrative matters is at the first instance leve! for all matters, with the exception 
of those which were trnnsferred by regulations to other decision-making 
administrative bodies. According to the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 
101 of the Law on Administration, administrative units are not materially competent 
to pass decisions about thc tasks of the geodetic service, administrative supervision, 
or defence and security; these tasks are performed directly by the competent 
ministries. The reasons why the legislaturc considercd the tasks of the geodetic 
service to be so important that they had to be performed directly by the competcnt 
ministry are not clear from the legal norm itself. However, the tasks of defcnce and 
administrative supervision are certainly of such nature that they should be centralizecl. 
Geodetski vestnik 40 (1996) 3 
egarding the annulment of the first paragraph of Article 101 of the Law on 
Administration, the National Council has adopted the Law on the Assumption 
of State Functions which were Pcrformed by Comnmnal Bodies until 31 December 
1994. The stated law determined thc material competence of administrative state 
bodies as competence detcrmined by individual laws, all of which are listed in this 
Law. Also in this Law, the competence for decision-making in the field of thc 
geodetic service, administrative supervision and defence and security, is excluded 
from the material competence of administrative units, which reflects the principle of 
decentralization of state authority. Contrary to the annulled provision of the second 
paragraph of Article 101 of the Law on Administration, inspection control is also 
excluded from the competence of administrative units. The tasks of the geodetic 
service were transfcrred to the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of 
Slovenia with the provision of Article 4 of this Law. 
According to the provision of the second paragraph of Article 140 of the . Constitution of the Republic of Slovcnia, the state may transfer the 
performance of individual tasks from statc competencc to communes or wider local 
communities with their previous approval, if it also provides the funds required for it. 
It can be seen from this provision that it is possible to transfer tasks from statc 
competence to communes or wider local communities, but this may only be done by 
law and with the previous approval of communcs or wider local communities; this 
wiil certainly depend on the capabilities of individual communes (spatial capabilities, 
personnel, etc.); the statc must provide funds for communes to perforrn the 
transferred tasks. 
The transfer of tasks of the geodetic service, land cadastre and basic geodetic measurcments which refer to professional-tcchnical and administrative tasks for 
the needs of city communes is provided for in the sixth paragraph of Article 2 of the 
proposal for the Law on City Communes, which was published in Poročevalec I•ofo. 7 
on 7 March 1996. It seems that the transfer of the tasks of geodetic service and other 
tasks stated in the sixth paragraph of Article 2 of the proposal for the Law on City 
Communes from state competcnce to all city communes by law is not in accordancc 
with the provisions of Article 140 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, 
since such transfer of state competcnce to ali city communes docs not fulfil the 
condition of previous approval of individual city communes for such transfers. If any 
city commune does approve of the transfer of state competencies, they must be 
transfered to that particular commune or a wider local self-managed community by a 
special law and not by legal transfer of sta te competencics to all city communes. 
Transfer to ali city communcs through one law would be possible only with thc 
approval of ali city communcs, and thcir approval would have to be explicitly stated 
in that law. In the sense of the above-mcntioned constitutional provision and the 
second paragraph of Article 121 of thc Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, it 
would be reasonable to chcck whcther certain tasks of the geodctic service and 
profession should be transfcrred to the competence of local communitics, or, 
altcrnatively, to companies, other organizations or individuals by way of public 
authorizations: 
Geodetski vestnik 40 ( 1996) 3 
o managemcnt of procedures which are declarcd as the performancc of 
services in thc ficki of land cadastrc 
o setting-up of new real-estate rccords (building cadastre) 
o management of the cadastre of public utilities 
0 management and production of geodetic plans for the needs of site 
documentation 
o laying out of buildings and facilities 
o cngineering-geodetic work 
o aerial surveys and remote scnsing 
o publishing and production of maps and other products which are based on 
state maps or state databases. 
In regulating the issues discussed above it will first be necessary to draw a line 
between thc (sta te) geodetic servicc and the geodetic profession. Thc Survcying and 
Mapping Authority of S!ovcnia is certainly thc bcarer of the geodetic service, but the 
bcarer of thc geodetic profession is hard to definc. Thc state administrative body is 
probably obliged to fill in the gap and gradually (but not chaotically) cede it to other 
qualified bearcrs: 
o the faculty and other scicntific institutions 
o the Gcodetic Chamber or intcrcst groups made up of geodctic professionals 
o geodetic engineers who are rccognized experts in individual fields 
o the Association of Surveyors of Slovenia 
o othcr informal proponents. 
Literature: 
Decision of the Constitulional Court No, U1285/94,J05 (Official Gazet!e of thc RS, No, 20/95) 
Tlze Basic Conslilutional Charler on lhe Sovcrcignty and Indcpendcncc of the Republic of S!ovcnia 
(Official Gazette of the RS, No. 1-4/91-l and comxlion 110, 19/91-1) 
The Conslilulion of the Republic of Slovcnia (Official Gaze/le of tlze RS, No. 33/91-/) 
The Conslitulional Law far the Implcmenlalion of the Basic Conslilutional Charter on lhe 
SOFercignty and Independcnce of lhc Republic of Slovenia (Official Gazette of thc RS, No. 
1/91-l and 54///94) 
Thc Decree on the Ten·itorial Extent of Administrative Units i11 lhe Republic of Slovenia (Official 
Gazetle of lhe RS, No, 75/94) 
The Law on Administration (Official Gaze!le of lhc RS, No, 67/94) 
The Law on Assuming of Stale Funclions which were Pe,fonned by Communal Bodies until 31 
December 1994 (Official Gaze!le of the RS, No. 29/95) 
The Law on Local Self-Managcment (Official Gaze/le of 1/ze RS, Nos. 72/93, 57/94 and 19/95) 
The Law on the Work Area of Ministries (Official Gaze/le of thc RS, No. 71 /94) 
Review: Stanko Pristovnik 
Pavel Zupančič, M,Se, 
Geodetski vestnik 40 (1996) 3